Casey Mittelstadt earned his first NHL point, but Buffalo fell the the Detroit Red Wings by a 6-3 score on Thursday night at KeyBank Center. “Going into a tough situation, I though [Mittelstadt] handled himself very well,” Phil Housley said following Friday night’s loss. “Did a lot of good things out there.” Jack Eichel opened up the game against the Red Wings, scoring his 25th goal the season at 4:11 into the game. The Sabres were able to take a 2-0 lead after another goal, this time on the power play by Ryan O’Reilly. The Wings were quick to bounce back, scoring exactly 30 seconds into the game later. Dylan Larkin snuck the puck past Robin Lehner, Detroit came back and scored at the beginning of the second period with a shorthanded goal from Darren Helm at 5:21, tying the game at two. The Sabres had no luck catching up to the Wings, but attempted a few close shots on goal. Buffalo entered the third period with a goalie change, adding Chad Johnson into the mix. Andreas Athanasiou was able to get the puck past Johnson, wracking the score up to 4-2 less than two minutes into the period. After a little bit of back and fourth play, Mittelstadt won the faceoff in Detroit territory, passing it off the Even Rodrigues who ripped the puck into the net, creeping the Sabres up on the Red Wings, 4-3. Mittelstadt’s first pro assist was also his first NHL point. A little over five minutes later, the Red Wings broke the one point deficit as Danny DeKeyser made it 5-3 at the halfway point of the period. After two back to back penalties on Buffalo, Johnson was pulled from the net with a little less than 4 minutes to go. As he skated towards the bench, Detroit took advantage of this opportunity, turning over the puck. Evgeny Svechnikov powered the puck down the ice and scored, pulling the Wings ahead by three. With the win, Detroit breaks their 11 game losing streak. Mittelstadt had a pretty good debut despite the loss, registering 1 shot on goal, 63% on face-offs and one assist, playing 12:53 on the ice. At the end of the game, Mittelstadt said he noticed he received extra applause and hopes to give the fans a reason to cheer for years to come. The Sabres have a day off before playing the Predators in Nashville on Saturday at 8 p.m.
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